As all three prisoners stared at the wall-screen, upon which was pictured a huge football of scarred grey steel, Czuv was amazed to see the faces of Breckenridge and King light up with fierce smiles of pleasure and anticipation.

In the same fleeting instant of time every molecule of substance in that beam's path flashed into tenuous vapor -- no conceivable material could resist or impede that stabbing stiletto of energy -- and the main control panel of the Vorkulian wall-screen system vanished.

Thus the prow was welded; armored, insulating air-breaks were built along the stern, which was the plane of hexan cleavage, electrical connections were restored; and lastly, a set of the great Vorkulian wall-screen generators, absorbers, and dissipators was installed, with sufficient accumulator capacity for their operation.